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US Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm recently took an EV road trip from Charlotte, North Carolina to Memphis, Tennessee in order to draw attention to the billions of dollars in funding the White House is making available to promote electric vehicles.
Granholm addressed audiences at town hall stops along her road trip. “Things are happening fast. You are in the center of it,” Granholm told voters in South Carolina. “Imagine how big clean energy industries will be in 13 years. How much stronger our economy is going to grow. How many good-paying jobs we’re going to create.”
NPR’s Camila Domonoske rode along with Granholm’s entourage, which included a Cadillac Lyriq EV, a Ford F-150 Lightning and a Chevy Bolt EUV. (The Secret Service apparently didn’t get the electric memo—its agents tagged along in the obligatory huge black gas-guzzling SUVs.)
Domonoske notes that the Road Trip looms large in the American automotive imagination. Although road trips are a tiny fraction of the trips Americans take, charging on the road tends to be the main concern of EV-curious drivers. A recent study from J.D. Power found that skepticism about public charging is the #1 objection cited by prospective EV buyers.
Secretary Granholm wanted to get a feel for the charging challenges ordinary EV drivers face on the road, and she certainly succeeded. At a public fast charging site near Augusta, Georgia, her advance team found that one of the station’s four chargers was broken, and others were occupied. A staffer decided to park a legacy gas-burner in front of a vacant charger to reserve a spot for the Secretary’s photo op. An irate EV driver called local police, only to find out that in Georgia, there’s no law against ICEing out charging spots. (Other more sensitive staffers shuffled the cars around so everyone could charge, and smoothed things over with the incensed driver.)
Of course, various less dramatic charging challenges cropped up—one of the Georgia chargers had a dead video screen, and at an Electrify America station in Tennessee, a charger plodded along at a third of the advertised rate.
However, Granholm’s team found that charging on the road worked most of the time. The caravan was able to charge all the EVs at every stop, and the 770-mile trip cost one of the Energy Department’s drivers just $35 for electrons, less than half what dinosaur juice would have cost.
“The private sector has stepped up” to build out public charging sites, Granholm told NPR, adding that the response to federal incentives has been “a blockbuster.”


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With some 1,500 passengers on board, the cruise ship Costa Romantica entered Port Victoria in the Seychelles to be welcomed by Alain St.Ange, the island’s Minister responsible for Tourism and Culture. Minister St.Ange was accompanied, as he boarded the cruise ship, by the CEO of the Seychelles Port Authority, Mr. Andre Ciseau, and by Mr. Gary Albert, his Deputy, and other members of the Seychelles Ports, and the Tourism Department’s team.
Captain Marco Derin of the Costa Romantica welcomed the Seychelles Ministers delegation, and on the bridge, the Ship’s Captain and the island’s Minister for Tourism exchanged gifts as Minister St.Ange said to Captain Marco Derin and his officers that Seychelles bids them a warm island welcome. “We all remain at your disposal should you need any advice on future trips and should you wish to discuss any points to enhance the stay of your passengers in our beautiful islands,” the Seychelles Minister said.
As the ship set sail a day later, one of the lounges of the ship had a coco de mer on display which was a gift offered to the ship’s Captain by Minister St.Ange along with a limited edition coffee table book on the Carnaval International de Victoria that is staged annually in Seychelles. The CEO of the Port Authority also presented the Ship’s Captain with a cap from the Seychelles Port Authority.
The Costa Romantica cruise ship is expected back in Port Victoria in the coming weeks on its way to Australia.
“A Creole welcome to spell out our country’s appreciation is always a worthwhile gesture. The Ministry of Tourism tries to do that when a Captain on board has never been to our islands. It is the minimum we can do to say thank you to these floating hotels entering our Port Victoria to get many a potential tourist to get a first glance of our islands,” Minister Alain St.Ange said.
Seychelles is a founding member of the International Council of Tourism Partners (ICTP).

domain: news


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Ports & Cargo orders four harbour cranes worth over $18m Euros to support growth
...As SIFAX Group embarks on infrastructural expansion
Ports & Cargo Handling Services Ltd (PCHL), an indigenous terminal operator in Nigeria, has concluded arrangements to acquire four new harbour cranes to support business growth and enhance discharge of vessels calling the terminal.
PCHSL, a subsidiary of SIFAX Group, is also investing in the acquisition of new reach stackers and forklifts to aid service delivery at the terminal and enhance turnaround time of vessels.
Speaking at its midyear media conference held last week in Lagos, Adekunle Oyinloye, group managing director, SIFAX Group, said the company has set a 5-year strategic growth plan that will generate a 300 percent increase in turnover.
“A key part of the plan is massive investment in equipment and facilities across our companies. More harbour cranes, reach stackers, haulage trucks, forklifts, baggage tow tractors among others, have been acquired to match our ambition to become the market leader in all the sectors we operate,” he said.
According to him, SIFAX is expanding its facilities as it has acquired two new off-dock locations in Lagos to improve cargo evacuation from the port and provide options for its clients to clear their consignments with less stress.
Stating that the new vision of the company necessitated bringing a new management team on board to drive the group’s business, he added that SIFAX also acquired 25 new trucks to facilitate door-to-door delivery of cargo to the importers.
John Jenkins, managing director, PCHSL, said the acquisition of the new equipment will not only aid the terminal to deliver quality services to its clients, but will position the terminal for future growth.
He said the company’s container throughput for the first half of 2019 stood at 130,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) while its general cargo volume was in excess of 100,000 tonnes.
“We are expecting our throughput for 2019 to be in the region of 280,000 to 290,000 TEUs on the back of an improved port access road. Already, we have crossed the 130,000 TEUs mark for the first half of the year. This figure is 275 TEUs less than what we achieved in 2018,” he stated.
Oyinloye however, pointed out that the major challenge that confronted the company’s business in the period under review was the traffic gridlock caused by the poor access roads around the Lagos ports.
He commended government for the ongoing construction on Apapa-Oshodi Expressway, but called for a more sustainable solution of linking the ports with a functional rail line to complement the road infrastructure.


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JoJo Maman Bebe hikes prices
JoJo Maman Bebe hikes prices for first time in 5 years due to widespread supply chain challenges
JoJo Maman Bébé is best known for its French-style children’s clothing – a favourite brand of Royals and recently worn by Princess Charlotte when she applauded NHS carers – but it has seen a spike in demand for its pregnancy products in the past few weeks.
The baby clothing and goods retailer said it had seen shipping costs quadruple in recent months. Its commercial director, Gwynn Milligan, said: “We’ve had no choice but to pass on some of these costs to our customers.”
Ms Milligan, commercial director told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that the firm had seen increases in the cost of raw materials such as wood, paper and plastics, for example, which may affect items such as its toys or changing mats.
She added that the company was also having to absorb increased costs on some products, because of competition from retail rivals. Price hikes will not be uniform across the board, but will depend on each item and what it is made up of.
“We’ve looked at prices across our competitors and also what customers realistically want to pay. There’s no set increase in any area, but it depends on what we’ve looked at and what’s going on in that sector.”
While the retailer does not believe that price increases will be sustained, it did point to problems with deliveries too – largely down to a shortage of lorry drivers at ports and difficulties in obtaining shipping containers.
Ms Milligan said: “We’re advising customers not to panic because we’ve increased our orders to deal with the ever-growing demand of JoJo.”
Customers have already starting planning their Christmas buys, according to the retailer. The term “Christmas” was the third-highest search on its website last week, and it believes that spending will be higher due to lockdown restrictions hampering festive plans for many people in the UK last December.
The news comes as the British Retail Consortium (BRC) warned that price increases could last into the winter months. While overall retail prices fell 0.8% year-on-year, Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the BRC, said: “There are some modest indications that rising costs are starting to filter through into product prices.”
She warned: “Low prices are already under threat, and now the HGV driver shortage has created an additional problem with a shortfall of 90,000 drivers.”
[Image source: Thank you to businesssupport.blog.gov.uk]


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In terms of augmented reality, yet there is no service or use widely adopted this technology, most of what we see today are testing prototypes or applications on smartphones that do not gain much attention or canvass few users. But when a company the size Google creates an initiative around this technology is well able that she finally takes off. The name of this initiative is Project Glass.
The announcement was made by the Project Glass team of developers on Google+ , where they say they want to create a technology that serves to “help you share and explore the world” and also ask for advice on where to focus. The glasses shown in the picture up there, they said, are “how technology can be [implemented]” and are not prototypes yet.
The team of engineers also made the video below showing how it should work.
(Video on YouTube)
If you are going to be successful, we do not know. The potential is great but what they show in the video is something that requires a lot of work to be implemented and, therefore, I think it’s a little far from becoming a reality. Maybe if they integrate with smartphones Android in some way, the process can be faster. But that’s just my speculation.
What I mean is: Google has time, money and manpower to be able to launch such a project in the market even in this generation. And I hope they do.


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KFC was roasted extra crispy on Thursday after it tweeted an NSFW photo in an effort to promote a "hot and spicy" offering.
The fast food chain's Australian division posted the following image to its Twitter account.
It showed a woman reaching in the area of a man's genitals, though what's happening has been blurred out:
Backlash followed swiftly. Some made a joke out of it.
Others didn't see anything funny about the ad.
KFC Australia eventually took the ad down and posted this apology.
What would Colonel Sanders think?
Also on HuffPost:


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Meaning “The Sustainable Egg” in Danish, Det Bæredygtige Æg from DAVA Foods takes organic to a new level. Launched in March 2020, the product is an organic egg produced under sustainable conditions that benefit animal welfare, the environment and consumers equally.
What makes Det Bæredygtige Æg special?
A higher level of ecology
Creating truly sustainable eggs means focusing on every step of the value chain, from a chicken’s first breath to the supermarket shelf. DAVA Foods concentrates on sustainability in all areas: from incubation to egg-laying and production to packaging.
"Is it possible to make eco-friendly eggs even more eco-friendly? YES! Every day, we work to make our production even more responsible and sustainable. Hartmann’s imagic2® gives us the best chance to promote our work following the launch of Det Bæredygtige Æg in Danish supermarkets.”
About DAVA Foods
Headquartered in Denmark, DAVA Foods has been supplying shell eggs and pasteurized egg products to the Danish market since 1980. Production is currently at an estimated 1.6 billion eggs per year. DAVA Foods has grown beyond Danish borders to include operations in Sweden, Norway, Finland and Estonia. The company now has six packing facilities, four egg product factories and a boiling house.
Hartmann CEO Torben Rosenkrantz-Theil outlines a common-sense response to the impact of single-use plastic packaging.
Hartmann's latest industry report shows Danes are the world's biggest fans of organic eggs.
The study of egg consumers in Europe and the US reveals advantages of saying no to plastic in the egg category.


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Just when you thought the wizards in Washington couldn’t distort the economy any more, along comes the “cash-for-clunkers” program. Spending billions of tax dollars to bribe people to buy new cars is always a silly idea, but it’s especially ludicrous with unemployment near 10% and the federal budget deficit near $2 trillion. What’s especially ironic is that the allegedly “green” program will barely put a dent in carbon dioxide emissions. Cash-for-clunkers is a loser even on its own terms.
For those who haven’t heard, cash-for-clunkers offers tax rebates of up to $4,500 to people who turn in their older vehicle and buy a new, fuel-efficient model. (The credit is actually given to the dealer who sells the new car.) The Senate has just approved a $2 billion expansion of the program. The official rationale is that cash-for-clunkers will stimulate the economy and at the same time reduce the threat of global warming. But the program fails on both counts.
As far as “stimulus,” it is a basic error to assume that the way to fix an economy is to get people to spend more. This has things exactly backward. The problem during a recession is that people aren’t producing enough. The hard part in life is going to work all day; it’s easy to consume. No matter how many green pieces of paper consumers have in their wallets, they won’t be able to buy products if workers haven’t already made those products.
Every dollar the government spends comes from either taxes, borrowing, or inflation. In all cases, the citizens are ultimately paying for it. You don’t make the country wealthier by taking money from some citizens and giving it to others so that they can buy a car that’s too expensive for their budget.
Right now, the economy is in recession because of the mistakes made during the housing bubble years. From 2002-2006, too many resources—such as bricks, lumber, and labor power—went into housing and related sectors. After the bubble popped, workers and resources needed to shift out of these bloated sectors and into those areas where they were more efficient.
Had the government and Fed kept their hands off, there would have been a sharp but short recession, as this readjustment took place. Unemployment would have spiked upward, but businesses in other sectors would have hired new workers as wages fell.


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The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has dedicated £1.2 million ($1.7 million) to Games London to spice up the video games sector in an effort to generate extra income for London and the UK.
As famous by British video games trade commerce physique UKIE, the brand new funding from the Greater London Authority ensures an additional three-year program of game-related occasions and actions, which means the annual London Games Festival has secured its quick future.
Founded in 2016, the Games London initiative is attempting to show the massive smoke into the “video games capital of the world.” As it stands, the UK is the fifth largest online game market by way of client income, however the total market is presently value over £100 billion ($141 billion) every year.
Last yr, UK online game gross sales generated a file £three.35 billion ($four.72 billion) — a rise of 9.6 p.c on the earlier yr — and London performs host to extra video games firms than anyplace else within the UK.
“The mayor’s continued help for the Games London program is crucial in sustaining and constructing on our international status because the capital for video games and interactive leisure,” commented UKIE chief government, Dr. Jo Twist.
“As an essential a part of the mayor’s cultural technique, the competition celebrates the importance video games play in an inclusive, numerous tradition for all, and the investment program is essential in driving financial success for our modern companies making innovative experiences and applied sciences.”


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The current state of manufacturing puts a lot of emphasis on both agility and customization. As just one example, the current model of the Ford F-150 pickup is now available with 600,000 variations, allowing a consumer to get their own “made-to-order” truck. As customers (and especially millennials) demand these unique options for their products, the manufacturing behind it must adapt.
Thankfully, technology is giving manufacturers the ability to make these custom parts and products. But it isn’t just a big manufacturer like Ford. Smaller companies and even individuals are using technologies like 3D printing, software, and community maker shops like TechShop and Fab Lab to bring their designs from idea to reality.
Has your company been successful in finding new approaches to cost-effective, low-volume manufacturing? MForesight, a “think-and-do” tank focused on next-generation technologies for U.S. manufacturing, has announced a competition to find manufacturing technologies that support a “democratization of manufacturing” – innovations that will increase the variety and value of items designed and manufactured cost-effectively in the United States.
Even better – you can win cash prizes! The competition offers three categories for entry, each of which offers a $10,000 prize for the winner.
MForesight’s description: “The competition is seeking technologies in hardware, software, collaborative systems and educational tools that could, with 3 to 5 years of additional development, lower barriers to entrepreneurs and small businesses to increase the variety and value of items manufactured.”
The competition closes on June 1.
Complete details are available at http://bit.ly/Mfg_Challenge. Good luck!
A challenge for students, too
Attendees at the recent [MC]2 Conference in Dallas had an opportunity to meet the winners from the first MTConnect Student Challenge competition, idea creation. But as you bring interns on board in the coming months, and as other students you know are looking for senior projects and other ways to demonstrate their classroom knowledge, point them to the ongoing application development competition as part of the student challenge.
The challenge seeks ideas that are cost-effective and easy to implement, especially for small- to medium-sized manufacturers with limited resources. As you saw in this column last month, the winner of the idea creation competition used a Raspberry Pi to act as a machine monitoring device. Students are encouraged to use their creative thinking and technology know-how to help foster better digital operations for manufacturing.
Check out all the details at mtconnect-apps.devpost.com.
Will you be entering either of these competitions? Email me at pbrown@AMTonline.org.


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Although the dog coin may have begun to explode in July, it ended in a low voice. Since the TikTok video about Dogecoin because of its sharp rise in prices, DOGE has seen an extraordinary correction in the chart. In fact, dogE has fallen more than 33 percent since reaching ATH in the first week of this month.
DogeCoin Union： dogecoin to euro chart
Restaurants in Maryland accept e-money dogecoin, MyFoxDC reported. Iron Rail Restaurant in Mount Savage, Maryland, officially accepts Dogecoin. Owner Terry Ii says the use of dogecoin has benefited restaurants, including the need not to pay for credit cards.
However, analysts believe a number of factors could prompt shorts to regain control. Most notably, technical analysts quoted yesterday's "doji candle" in the daily chart, which is characterized by an almost equal opening and closing price. The cross-star candle in the technical chart analysis indicates market uncertainty and may now indicate a return to a bearish trend.
Jackson Palmer, co-founder of Dogecoin, advises MOBIUS.
Musk's latest attempt is to disrupt the Dogecoin community, shortly after the memes cryptocurrencies became popular.
Tesla founder Musk: Dogecoin is probably my favorite cryptocurrencies.
Related: Encryption: Twitter's "Bitcoin Scam," Elon Musk and Dogecoin, Agency Wants BTC and ETH
According to Coinatmradar, 29 Bitcoin ATMs were shut down last month. Among the countries that turned off ATMs were Jamaica and South Africa.
What's the difference between Filecoin and Bitcoin and Ethereum? Little white must see.
In an article published on its website on February 9, BitGrail said 17 million Nanos had been hacked. However, after the hack, bitGrail and the Nano team accused each other of stealing tokens.
Dogecoin or a TikTok Challenge video price jumps 26%
Crypto Pay - Double reward for shipping and grocery gift cards (up to 20%)
Dog coin DOGecoin was born on December 12, 2013 by Australian brand and marketing expert Jackson Palmer and programmer Palmer in Portland, Oregon. Dogecoin is based on the Scrypt algorithm and the transaction process is more convenient than Bitcoin.
IOTA (MIOTA), Nebulas (NAS), Dogecoin (DOGE)
Two days after the Dogecoin domain name was registered, Marcus came across the site and suddenly felt he had found his place. So he sent Palmer a tweet expressing his cooperation. Before Palmer replied, he had begun rearranging the source code for Bitcoin and adding elements to Doge Meme.


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How Does Rivian Compare to Tesla?
Tesla has raised $14.5 billion over the years and has been spending about $2.4 to $3.5 billion each year on construction of factories and other capital expenditures.
During Tesla’s Q4 2018 investor conference call a couple of weeks ago, Elon Musk said that Tesla’s pickup truck may be ready to be revealed this summer. The Rivian funding announcement will likely accelerate Tesla’s pickup truck and Model Y plans. The Model Y will be a small electric SUV that will share 75% of its parts with the Model 3.
Elon Musk has said the tooling for the new Model Y has been ordered and that production of the model Y will start in 2020.
Tesla plans to have a pilot Model Y line built at Gigafactory 1 by June 1, 2020 and ramp up production to about 2,000 units per week by September 2020.
The Model Y should have the option for a third row of seats.
There will be a high passenger capacity mini-bus based on the frame of the Model X late in 2020 or in 2021.
Thompson Reuters has Tesla financial data and projections.
Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
Known for identifying cutting edge technologies, he is currently a Co-Founder of a startup and fundraiser for high potential early-stage companies. He is the Head of Research for Allocations for deep technology investments and an Angel Investor at Space Angels.
A frequent speaker at corporations, he has been a TEDx speaker, a Singularity University speaker and guest at numerous interviews for radio and podcasts. He is open to public speaking and advising engagements.


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CREWE and Nantwich MP Edward Timpson has welcomed new Conservative plans to support small- and medium-sized businesses.
The party’s new policies are designed to encourage more small businesses start up across the country, as well as to help existing businesses, by making it harder for the Government to make firms bankrupt as a result of low levels of unpaid taxes.
It currently takes twice as long to start a business in the UK as in the USA, Denmark or Hong Kong.
Mr Timpson said:Š“We need to cut the bureaucracy and form-filling, and make it easy for anyone with a good idea or an entrepreneurial spirit to start up a business.”
These changes come on top of plans to reduce small company corporation tax rates to 20p and abolish tax on the jobs created by new businesses in the first two years of a Conservative Government.
Mr Timpson said: “Small Businesses are at the heart of the economy and essential for Crewe and Nantwich. In these difficult times they need all the help they can get.
“More than 2,500 people are currently claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance in our area, and I hope these proposals will secure local jobs and economic growth.”


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Green Beanz — Bringing the Spirit of Sustainability into P2E Gaming
Back to Blog
10 Feb 2022
The environmental impact of blockchains, particularly those using energy-intensive “Proof-of-Work” (PoW) consensus mechanisms to validate new transactions, has been one of the cornerstones of popular critiques levelled at the industry. Even Elon Musk, the controversial darling of the crypto community, was quick to make a sharp about-turn, citing concerns over its impact on carbon emissions – just a month after announcing to much fanfare that Tesla would accept Bitcoin payments around March last year.
The responses by industry players have ranged from pointing to the significantly greater environmental impact of the present banking system running on Web 2.0 payment rails to promoting “green” blockchains that don’t rely on energy-intensive consensus mechanisms.
But the founders of the fledgling play-to-earn (P2E) startup, Green Beanz, might have a better idea. They hope their blockchain-based game can reward environmentally-friendly behaviors in real life – all while running on the Zilliqa network, an energy-efficient blockchain whose carbon footprint is so low; it’s been estimated only one country on Earth emits less carbon than Zilliqa: the island nation of Tuvalu with a population of about 12,000 inhabitants.
One missing piece of the sustainability puzzle is the problem of incentives. Simply put, there is often no money to be made for individuals or companies if they produce less waste or engage in other “green” behaviors. In fact in some cases, it may even cost more. For instance, switching to a biodegradable packaging material for food simply eats into restaurants’ margins.
No one is more familiar with this problem than Chunhui Suen, one of Green Beanz’ co-founders. Suen is both a tech industry veteran and a passionate advocate for reducing our waste and carbon output. Since 2018, he has been running Kindred Community, a non-governmental organization in Singapore that rallies the community to clean up public beaches and parks. But he quickly realized that many startups and NGOs in the sustainability space often lacked a viable business model to finance rewarding people for participating in such activities. “If we can just get 5% of the global population to change their behaviour, we can dramatically reduce our impact on the environment. But to do that, we need a robust incentive system that can reward people for doing so”, Suen explained.
With over a decade working on cloud computing, big data infrastructure, and distributed systems at companies like IBM and Visa, Suen was intrigued by the potential for blockchain-based games to be that missing puzzle piece. He noticed how P2E games like Axie Infinity were skyrocketing in countries like the Philippines, where its in-game tokens are increasingly being accepted as currency in real life. Suen also drew inspiration from Pokemon Go, the augmented reality (AR) game that succeeded in convincing large crowds of sedentary urban dwellers to go forth into the real world.
That’s when the idea for Green Beanz was born. Suen hopes that by building and growing a community of gamers around a fun, Axie-like P2E game, they will be eventually able to link the minting of in-game characters, or the mining of in-game currency to real-world behaviors that reduce waste or carbon emissions. That way, players who love the game can pay miners to make a difference in real life.
Suen had known about Zilliqa since 2018, having met with its early team members while teaching blockchain at the National University of Singapore as an adjunct professor. But he was hesitant about trying to learn Scilla, the smart contract programming language, on his own. So when he received an email invitation to join the ZILHive Incubator in 2019, he jumped at the opportunity. “Scilla, like other functional programming languages, has a syntax that can be harder to read and understand. So having a structured programme and instructors that can really help you when you run into problems is invaluable”, Suen said.
Being accepted into ZILHive was also instrumental in helping Suen bring his idea for Green Beanz to life. For one, that’s where he met his co-founder, David Jian – an environmental engineer who had also joined the Scilla developer course. Along with Jian, Suen also found other like-minded teammates interested in using blockchain for good. The ZILHive Incubator brought together a team of highly experienced professionals with diverse and complementary skills needed to build a business: from front and back end developers, marketing, and even game artists.
Jian says the mentorship and masterclasses during the Accelerator programme were incredibly valuable in guiding them through the business side of running a blockchain project like regulations and fundraising mechanics. The project has already seen traction since graduating from the Accelerator program in Feb 2022, with a total of 2.2M $ZIL and 8.7 $ETH raised and 2039 NFTs minted in their presale.
Looking ahead, the Green Beanz founders are determined to grow a base of sustainability business partners while building a community of gamers that can finance rewards for sustainable behaviors. They talk excitedly about the possibility of a guild system that can drive people to organize around hitting collective sustainability targets to gain access to events or exclusive products and services offered by sustainable businesses they partner with. The road ahead to a zero-waste, zero-carbon world may be a long and winding one. But like their project’s namesake, Suen and his team are just getting started. To learn more about ZILHive’s programmes, visit https://zilhive.org/.


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updated 09:05 am EST, Thu March 5, 2009
LG Arena 1m Pre-orders
LG on Thursday revealed that it has already obtained 1 million pre-orders for the KM900 Arena, its new full-touch flagship. The tally comes less than a month after the Arena was introduced at Mobile World Congress in February and is enough to have prompted LG to increase the number of countries slated for the European launch this month. The Korean company acknowledges that the pre-orders are worldwide but hasn't broken them down by country or region.
Reaching the symbolic milestone has given the cellphone designer confidence that it should achieve record sales. The company's previous best-seller, the conventional but music-oriented Chocolate, managed 500,000 advance purchases and ultimately sold approximately 20 million examples before it was replaced. LG's highest-profile touchscreen phone to date, the Viewty, cracked the 10 million unit mark without the advantage of early demand.
The scale of the pre-orders and anticipated sales gives LG an edge in likely market share for touchscreen phones and reflects its relative scale. Although Apple is often cited as one of the most popular makers of touchscreen phones, its total share amounted to 1.1 percent of the world market at the end of 2008. LG in turn netted 8.3 percent of the market helped both by its much wider international reach as well as its combination of both multiple touchscreen models as well as conventional phones.
The Arena has a handful of technical advantages over the current-generation iPhone, including a 5-megapixel camera, a higher-resolution 800x480 display and a microSDHC card slot. [via Telecoms Korea]


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Did you know that 87 percent of travelers use the internet for the bulk of their travel planning?
The U.S. online travel industry is set to reach a heady $162 billion in 2012 – up some 74 percent since 2007 – and social media is playing its part. More than half (52 percent) of travelers have changed their plans after researching their trip on social media sites, and 50 percent of travel companies have said that direct bookings have been generated from social media.
This infographic takes a closer look at some key statistics of the online travel industry.
By Shea Bennett


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Designer Roland Mouret launches women activewear collection. Enthused by post-COVID-pandemic dressing.
As in the pandemic more and more women have started working out. This is the first time Mouret has worked with technical fabrics, and he ensured that the activewear will be identical to his seasonal collections.
Mouret in an interview with WWD said, “It is my twist on that fine line between sports and ready-to-wear.”
“And it is still draped, of course. I drape everything! I always design in 360 degrees. It’s all the same family of clothes.”
The new activewear range tops have his signature color blocking. While leggings also feature the signature Mouret dart. Mouret was attentive on the architecture of the clothes and evaded patterns.
Mouret plans on increasing his activewear into other types like tennis and swim. While several luxury evening wear brands took a hit during the COVID-19 pandemic.


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Islands Sprout, Ships Get Lighter As Lake Superior Gets More Shallow
Lake Superior's level continues to drop so cargo ship loads have to be lightened.
That means costs to consumers go up as the lake level goes down, according to this report from Minnesota Public Radio.
This isn't some scare story about Global Warming or a hotter, dryer future.
It's about what's happening on the biggest of the Great lakes, today.
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Say hello to the new largest photo in the world. An international team led by photographer Filippo Blengini has published a gigantic panoramic photograph of Mont Blanc, Europe’s highest mountain. This new record-holding image weighs in at a staggering 365 gigapixels..
Which is the most clearest photo in the world?
At Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in USA,the scientists have captured the world’s first 3,200-megapixel images. Yes, 3,200! This achievement was made possible with the help of an image sensor that will later be the core of the world’s largest camera.
What is the highest resolution ever achieved?
The most commonly discussed 16K resolution is 15360 × 8640, which doubles the pixel count of 8K UHD in each dimension, for a total of four times as many pixels. This resolution has 132.7 megapixels, 16 times as many pixels as 4K resolution and 64 times as many pixels as 1080p resolution.
What’s the clearest picture of the sun?
The astrophotographer who took it claims that he has snapped what he considers to be the ‘clearest ever photo of the sun’. Andrew McCarthy’s photo is indeed stunning and is a combination of 150,000 layered pictures to show the key to life on Earth in remarkable detail.
What is the highest camera quality?
The highest resolution cameras you can buy right now
- Hasselblad H6D-400C Multi-Shot. We had a big argument about this, and it’s still going on.
- Phase One XF IQ4 150MP Camera System.
- Phase One XT.
- Fujifilm GFX 100 / Fujifilm GFX 100S.
- Hasselblad H6D-100c.
- Sony A7R IV.
- Sigma fp L.
- Leica M11.
Are there pictures of Pluto?
On July 14, 2015, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft zoomed within 7,800 miles (12,550 kilometers) of Pluto, capturing the first-ever up-close images of that distant and mysterious world.
Is there a 576 megapixel camera?
During a presentation at SEMI Europe Summit, Haechang Lee, Senior VP Automotive Sensor at Samsung Electronics revealed that the South Korean giant plans to launch its 576-megapixel camera sensor in 2025. The image was spotted by Image Sensors World.
Are there 16K cameras?
F65 camera with anamorphic lens
Nest+Visual, Inc. has successfully met the challenge as leader of a project to produce 16K ultra-wide (16320×2304-pixel) content, to be presented on a 36-screen display installed at Tokyo International Airport, Haneda.
How many megapixels is a human eye? According to scientist and photographer Dr. Roger Clark, the resolution of the human eye is 576 megapixels.
What is the best quality picture ever taken?
The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam has released an interactive photo of The Night Watch painting by Rembrandt in a staggering resolution of 717-gigapixels. The museum claims it is the highest resolution photo of artwork ever captured.
How many megapixels is the human eye?
According to scientist and photographer Dr. Roger Clark, the resolution of the human eye is 576 megapixels. That’s huge when you compare it to the 12 megapixels of an iPhone 7’s camera.
Do megapixels affect image quality?
Megapixel resolution plays an important role in how large you can print your pictures. Because the more megapixels you have, the more detail is recorded, high-resolution cameras allow you to make larger prints or crop shots without worrying about the image’s pixel structure becoming visible.
How long did it take to take a picture in 1800s?
The first photograph ever shot, the 1826 photo View from the Window at Le Gras, took a whopping 8 hours to expose. When Louis Daguerre introduced the daguerreotype in 1839, he managed to shave this time down to just 15 minutes.
Can humans see 8K?
The term 8K doesn’t really apply to how eyes work, but if we reduce the complex nature of sight down to this marketing buzzword then yes, the human eye can see in 8K and beyond. The reason for this hesitation is that eyes don’t see in pixels, or use resolutions – no optician has ever said you can only see in 720p.
What is megapixel of Eagle eye? Camera Description: Eagle’s Eye AHD Series Bullet Camera is of 1.3MP (720P) High-Performance, 1/3″ CMOS Sensor, Up to 720P Resolution, 3.6mm Fixed Lens, True Day / Night Vision, Up to 30m IR Range Distance. Effective Pixels – 1280 (H) x 960 (V).
Is 108MP camera good? Since these sensors have millions of pixels that capture light independently of one another, you’ll find a camera with 108MP resolution gets a more detailed image that can be zoomed in digitally or printed on a larger scale without becoming blurry or grainy compared to 12MP, 48MP, and 64MP cameras.
How many megapixels is 4K? 4K surveillance is the latest offering in the world of HD video surveillance cameras. The 4K label on a camera means that the device will record images at a level of about 12 megapixels or video at double the resolution of a standard HD TV (1920 x 1080).
What is the most viewed image on the Internet?
Not many know Charles O’Rear is the man behind Bliss, the photograph considered by many as the most-viewed picture in the history of the world. O’Rear clicked Bliss 21 years ago and it was used by Microsoft as the default background for its Windows XP operating system.
What is the most reproduced photo in the world?
For it is John Hedgecoe who took what is now thought to be the most reproduced photo in history — the sideways portrait of The Queen that was used on Royal Mail postage stamps.
Where is the most viewed photo in the world?
Showing rolling green hills in Sonoma County, California, the image was shot by the side of a highway by professional photographer Charles O’Rear using a medium format camera. It has reportedly been viewed by over 1 billion people since it first emerged in 2002.
Is 32k resolution possible?
The 32k camera uses two 16k/5 μm TDI arrays with ½ pixel o set. Two 16k/5 μm image data are captured and then reconstructed to achieve a super-resolution image of 32k/2.5 μm in real-time. This significantly enhances detectability for subpixel defects.
Is 16K video possible?
StormStock® is the world’s first footage source to offer 16K video for license. All 16K content is produced and photographed by Martin Lisius.
Is 16K resolution possible?
This resolution has 132.7 megapixels, 16 times as many pixels as 4K resolution and 64 times as many pixels as 1080p resolution. Currently, 16K resolutions can be run using multi-monitor setups with AMD Eyefinity or Nvidia Surround.
Will we ever get a clear picture of a black hole?
At best, NASA’s Chandra telescope orbiting Earth has spotted the bright X-rays flaring around the black hole. For any individual telescope, getting a clear close-up image of a black hole is impossible.
What is the real image of Earth? The Blue Marble is an image of Earth taken on December 7, 1972, from a distance of about 29,000 kilometers (18,000 miles) from the planet’s surface.
Is 12MP better than 108MP?
So, just like a 12MP camera has 12 million pixels, a 108MP camera’s sensor boasts a whopping 108 million pixels onboard. The 108-megapixel camera’s larger pixel count allows it to capture more information, compared to 64MP, 48MP, and traditional 12MP cameras.


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Montenegro, Croatia, Iceland: which European countries are most – and least – dependent on tourism
Tourists are welcome all over Europe.
But visitors can expect an extra friendly welcome in Montenegro, where tourism accounts for more than a quarter of economic output.
The figures of the World Travel and Tourism Council revealed which European economies depended most on tourism before the pandemic – and who still are.
It is based on gross domestic product (GDP), a measure of the total value of goods and services produced in a given country in a year.
Small caps Montenegrowith its gleam of Adriatic Sea, the travel industry accounted for almost a third (30.8%) of the country’s GDP in 2019.
This figure dropped to just over 7% in 2020 – but has since rebounded to 25.5%.
Which European countries depend the most on tourism?
Since pandemic restrictions eased, countries have tried to bring tourists back.
For places that rely heavily on high-spending travelers, this task couldn’t be more urgent.
In 2019, Montenegro’s dependence on tourism was followed closely by that of Croatia. The Balkan coastal country depended on tourism for almost a quarter (24.8%) of its GDP. By 2021, that figure had fallen to 16.1%.
Before the pandemic, tourism accounted for more than a fifth of GDP in GreeceIceland and Albania. In each of these countries, it now represents less than a sixth.
At the other end of the spectrum, many countries had virtually no tourism in 2019. These countries largely failed to attract visitors from across the border. restrictions began to ease.
In 2019, Ireland received 4.2% of its GDP from the travel industry, followed by Poland (4.8%) and Russia (5%).
Figures for 2021 show these percentages dropping even further. In Ireland, tourism represented only 1.2% of the total economy and in Poland less than 3%.
In Russiatourism accounted for 3.7% of GDP in 2021. But those numbers are set to fall further this year, with visitor numbers soaring after Russia invaded Ukraine.
In the rest of the continent, tourism will increase this year, with many countries experiencing a strong increase in the number of visitors.
Analysis from Landgeist – an organization that tracks statistical trends using maps – clearly ranks GDP increases in 2019 across the continent
What about the most popular European countries for tourists?
The most popular countries in Europe attract millions of tourists every year. However, they are less dependent on it than some of their neighbors.
France is Europe’s most popular country with tourists, receiving 90 million visitors a year before the pandemic. Montenegro, on the other hand, received just over 2.5 million.
Tourists flock to France for its cultured cities, beautiful landscapes and gastronomy.
But tourism accounted for less than a tenth of GDP before the pandemic, according to WTTC figures – and in 2021 it contributed 6.5%.
Nearby Spain welcomed more than 80 million visitors in 2019. Yet tourism only accounted for 14.5% of GDP – a figure that almost halved to 8.5% in 2021.
What to do in Montenegro
So if you want to help rebuild the travel industry in Europe, where it’s needed most, consider a vacation to Montenegro.
The country may be small, but there is no shortage of things to do and see. Soaring mountains and medieval cities, here are three of the best things to do in Montenegro.
3. Go to the beach
With 295 km of coastline, Montenegro has hundreds of beautiful beaches. Try Jaz Beach, one of the longest in the Budva region and a popular spot with tourists and locals alike.
Also check the calendar of events – the beach often hosts concerts and festivals.
2. Stroll through the old town of Kotor
Located in the walled city of Kotor, the old town is a protected site Unesco World Heritage with two millennia of history. The city’s attractions – including a 12th-century Roman cathedral and one of the first theaters in the Balkans – are enclosed within 10-meter-thick medieval walls.
You can also walk to the city walls for stunning views of the Bay of Kotor. A solid alternative to the busy walls of Dubrovnik.
1. Visit one of the country’s national parks
Nature lovers should head to Lovcen National Park, home to over 1300 plant species. The towering peak in the center gave Montenegro its historical name, Črna Gora (“Black Mountain”).
For a breathtaking landscapediscover Durmitor National Park, dotted with glistening glacial lakes.


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Along with the perennial favorites like ribs and fried dough, local restaurant owners are cooking up Cajun alligator patties and other exotic fare in preparation for the 21st annual Taste of Chicago, which starts Friday.
Recipe for success
Restaurant owners get greatest profit from the exposure they gain at Taste of Chicago
Longtime Taste staples like the Billy Goat Grill, Bacino's Pizza and Robinson's #1 Ribs are pulling out all the stops again this year, even though most local businesses say the event is more of a public relations boon than a financial one.
"Probably the biggest benefit is the exposure and promotion of the restaurants," says Colleen McShane, president of the Illinois Restaurant Assn. "Every restaurant has a teeny, teeny budget for marketing and PR; most of them find that the money they spend on the Taste is worth more."
In recent years, most vendors have generated sales of between $100,000 and $250,000. But after overhead, their profits are usually only about $8,000 to $10,000 (Crain's, June 26).
With 3.6 million visitors expected this year, up from 3.57 million last year, restaurant owners are hoping for plenty of exposure. To encourage people to sample as much as possible, Ms. McShane says, organizers have kept prices the same as last year: $6 buys 10 tickets, meaning visitors can try 13 different items for under $20.
Also, like last year, each vendor will be offering a smaller "Taste of Taste" portion, a move meant to encourage sampling of more adventurous items, like the Cajun alligator. "It tastes like chicken," Ms. McShane notes.
Taste organizers say they don't expect recent construction projects, including the Wacker Drive renovation, to hamper attendance, with more fest-goers opting for public transportation.
The Gourmet Dining Pavilion this year includes offerings from Magnum's Prime Steakhouse, The Outpost, Blue Agave, and Prairie.
Other highlights of this year's Taste include a July 2 performance by legendary Las Vegas performer Wayne Newton, the traditional fireworks display on July 3 and a Fourth of July concert featuring local band Wilco.
And finally, those who wish to work out before pigging out can take a Tai Chi, Yoga or Pilates body conditioning class each morning at the Taste's Chicago Living Pavilion.


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10 more things you should know about European ecommerce
April 14, 2014
Last month I wrote a blog about the 10 things you should know about European ecommerce, but such a huge topic comprised of dozens of different markets can’t be summarised in just 10 points so here are some more things you need to know about Europe’s online retail industries.
France: €140,000 can now buy you the use of the .paris domain
- Fraudulent ecommerce vendors face prosecution in the Netherlands - This may seem like a pretty obvious claim, but until recently there was no law in place in the Netherlands that could lead to the prosecution of fraudulent online retailers. The country’s Minister of Justice has proposed a bill that will see those who purport to sell online products but then fail to deliver them to customer able to be prosecuted.
- Silver Surfers’ dominate Danish market - The Danes are big fans of shopping online, especially those over the age of 50 with these ‘Silver Surfers’ accounting for nearly two thirds of the country’s ecommerce last year. Ecommerce in Denmark now accounts for 17 DKK of every 100 DKK spent and 80% of consumer purchases start with the customer checking products and prices online.
- Finland’s digital industries survive economic problems - The digital media industry in Finland bucked a tough economic climate and grew to €237.6 million last year – digital advertising accounted for almost half of this. This along with the increase in investment in search engine marketing is a clear sign that the country’s digital industries are withstanding the nations’ economic problems.
- France has launched .paris - Companies can now use the .paris domain, however to do so will set you back €140,000 as part of an exclusivity set-up that lasts until autumn this year. After that it will be available for around €10 a year, the exact figure is yet to be confirmed.
- Swedish VAT could hit ecommerce sales - Previously VAT for ecommerce transactions has been paid in the seller’s country. This law meant that sites like Amazon have sold products from countries with low rates of tax like Luxembourg. The new VAT rules, which come into effect in the New Year, will reverse this, hitting consumers from nations with high VAT rights like Sweden (25% VAT) in the pocket.
- Tablet usage has doubled in Germany - Tablet penetration in Germany has reached 18 million, a figure that represents a quarter of consumers over 14. To give an idea of the increase in popularity, in 2012 this proportion was as low as one in eight. Germans between the ages of 30 and 49 are the most likely to use tablets, however usage drops off significantly in those aged 65 and above to just 10%.
- Italy has scrapped controversial ‘Web Tax’ - Under the previous government Italy had proposed to introduce a controversial ‘Web Tax’ that would hit large corporate businesses which were profiting in the country (i.e. Google and Facebook) and was estimated to raise up to €1billion in revenues. This has now been scrapped by Prime Minister Renzi, to much derision by the Italian public.
- Millennials in the Netherlands have surprising shopping habits - Recent research has found that 41% of Millenials (those born between 1980 and 2000) actually prefer to shop in brick and mortar stores rather than online. With the prevalence of online shopping in young people you would expect this figure to be much lower, but the study reported that physically inspecting their purchases is very important to this generation.
- Spain has Europe’s highest smartphone penetration - Two thirds of the Spanish population own a smartphone, making it one of Europe’s most mobile markets. Especially as four million of those smartphone users also own a tablet and video viewing figures from mobile grew 164% in the last year. Ecommerce is fast becoming a way of life in Spain, with just 8% of the population claiming to have never made an online purchase.
- Real-time bidding all the rage in France - The French have really taken to real-time bidding and this form of advertising now accounts for nearly a fifth of the country’s €117display market. To provide some context in the UK this percentage is just 14% and in Germany 12%. Investment in real-time bidding is up 125% since last year and more strong growth is forecast for 2014.
Sources: Adformatie, Emarketer, ComScore, Journal Du Net,
Other posts by Ian:


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TWICE editor in chief John Laposky is in Shanghai this week reporting on CES Asia.
Shanghai, China – The inaugural CES Asia, which ends Wednesday, drew a larger-than-expected crowd of close to 25,000 attendees, 1,000 members of the international press and more than 250 exhibitors from 16 countries, according to Consumer Electronics Association president/CEO Gary Shapiro.
The event drew a mostly Chinese crowd, though a third of the attendees were from other countries, Shapiro said.
The scaled-down version of International CES featured speakers representing the breadth of the global consumer technology sphere, many of whom catered their addresses to emphasize the importance and influence of the Asian Pacific market.
Audi chairman Rupert Stadler kicked of the proceedings Sunday evening with a ringing endorsement of the digitization of technology. His premise, that the digital revolution is having a stronger and much faster impact on global business and the human condition than the original industrial revolution, was endorsed by subsequent speakers throughout the week.
Stadler spoke of the ways today's smart technologies are altering almost every industry, and specifically cited how digital workflows, 3D printing, robotics and virtual reality are changing the way cars are designed, manufactured and sold.
Looking ahead, Stadler espoused the virtues of the coming revolution of driverless cars, citing that 90 percent of the 1.1 million death per year by car accident are caused by human error. "Pilotless driving has the potential to be much safer. It will save lives," he said.
Stadler's big finish was the world debut of Audi's pilotless R8 coupe, and he invited (dared?) those in attendance to drop by Audi's booth and sign up for an 8-kilometer test-ride through Shanghai's notoriously trafficky downtown.
Intel senior VP Kirk Skaugen's keynote sketched out a strategy to change the most basic ways users interact with technology to better their lives.
Skaugen stressed the promise of future technology, driven by innovative Intel computing power solutions, that will eliminate everyday computing realities like the mouse and keyboard, cables and passwords, among others.
IBM's D.C. Chen, who heads the company's Greater China group, focused his keynote on the potential of the Internet of Things and especially the tremendous potential for the use of big data to solve real-world problems facing businesses, such as the weather's impact on shipping, for example.
Scott Burnett, IBM's global director of CE, followed that up with a three-point plan for the use of data by businesses to accelerate innovation, enhance operations and improve engagement with customers. Sadly, he said, much of the data being collected by IoT devices currently is not being captured or analyzed in real time, which renders much of it useless. But, he said, that will change. "We are in the first inning of a nine-inning ballgame with the IoT," he said, and stressed the role that the "data scientist" will have on the future of business, health and the lives of everyone on the globe.
Kicking off a series of addresses by "industry movers," Twitter VP Shailesh Rao declared that the "global conversation" that is enabled by Twitter in particular, and social media in general, is already breaking down the walls of communication between world leaders and their constituents, entertainers and their fans, and most importantly in the context of CES Asia, businesses and their customers.
Rao stressed the importance of communication that is live, public, conversational and instantly distributed. Such conversation, which spikes around the world during significant events such as the World Cup, international elections and tragedies, allows a global audience to weigh in and raise discourse and dialogue.
Rao pointed out that this type of communication is still in its infancy, and its potential to change the world is a matter of when, not if.


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Trinamool Govt has done a lot for small and medium businesses, and farmers: Dr Amit Mitra
Finance Minister Dr Amit Mitra, while replying to a debate in the State Assembly, said that the Trinamool Congress Government has done a lot to help small and medium businesses, and farmers, among others, and elaborated on the statement.
He said that the government has done away with the requirement for businesses with an annual turnover of less than Rs 20 lakh to pay the goods and services tax (GST). This would benefit 1 lakh 27 thousand 45 small and medium-scale businesses.
And for those with an annual turnover of less than Rs 1.5 lakh, there is the single control system (SCS), which would benefit 1.87 lakh businesses. Additionally, there is the Composition Scheme for such businesses, through which businesses are being able to improve their bottomline by paying much less tax. This is benefitting 1.87 lakh businesses.
Dr Mitra then spelt out the measures taken for farmers by the Maa-Mati-Manush Government led by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
The State Government has created a fund of Rs 100 crore for buying farmers’ products at the minimum support price (MSP) so that even when there is excess production, farmers do not suffer because of the fall in prices. He said that no other state has been able to create such a fund and that this would immensely help the farmers of Bengal.
Then, the government has also done away with the mutation fee paid by farmers to give them relief. This would benefit seven to eight lakh farmers.


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Deborah Wahl's appointment as Cadillac's new global chief marketing officer puts her in an exclusive group of executives to complete the Detroit 3 trifecta.
AutoNews.com. Mon, 12 Mar 2018 00:01:00 EST. Subscription may be required.
Cadillac named former Chrysler marketing executive Deborah Wahl as its new global chief marketing officer, replacing Uwe Ellinghaus, who left the luxury brand at the end of 2017.
AutoNews.com. Tue, 6 Mar 2018 13:41:52 EST. Subscription may be required.
Ford's new Lincoln Navigator is selling swiftly -- and now the U.S. automaker has hired tennis star Serena Williams to keep sales strong. GM's Cadillac division, which makes Escalade, surely will step up its game.
By Doron Levin, Contributor. Forbes. Mon, 5 Mar 2018 09:56:00 -0500.
Results of a new assessment program designed to help consumers identify models with technology to prevent or reduce low speed backing crashes were released.
By Tanya Mohn, Contributor. Forbes. Thu, 22 Feb 2018 15:15:00 -0500.
From the very beginning, the Car of the Year award has always been a unique time capsule for Motor Trend. In only our third issue, we had the gumption to select the 1949 Cadillac as Car of the Year over rivals from Ford and Oldsmobile. ...
Erika Pizano. Motor Trend. Tue, 28 Nov 2017 14:42:05 +0000.
Information and resource links about Cadillac motor vehicles. View a Cadillac photograph, visit the official Cadillac website, and find Cadillac consumer information.


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Like most people, I have found myself challenged by the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic. The social consequences are very real, so is the financial impact as millions of Americans face economic hardship and uncertainty.
(Related: The Record Economic Boom Is a Mirage)
As advisors, we are in a unique situation to help our clients and prospects reexamine their financial situation and goals. It is time for us the pandemic as a chance to re-envision their situation. As is the case with most of life, each hardship and challenge contains lessons to be learned. These lessons, if properly understood, can lead to long-term, positive changes.
Nowhere is this truer than in the area of personal finance. Even though the United States has long had one of the most successful, respected, and trusted financial systems in the world, COVID-19 proved that we are still vulnerable to “black swan” events.
The pandemic exposed numerous shortcomings and weak spots in the global financial system and highlighted the need to preserve market liquidity. Long-term interest rates created a situation where companies have taken on far too much debt.
The result of this excessive debt is that rating agencies will downgrade many companies. The downgrades then have the potential to create a tsunami that will overwhelm financial markets as the high-yield market has difficulty handling increased inventory.
We’ve also seen that service-based economies were not ready for an event such as the pandemic both here and around the world. Sharp declines in retail sales, for example, resulted as lockdown measures kept consumers at home. Many stores were forced to shut down, and, likely, a good percentage of those will never re-open. Even the surge of Amazon sales has not been able to blunt the pandemic’s impact on the retail sector.
Similar stories are being reported in the hospitality, travel, education, and senior services industries, all of whom have been strongly impacted by the COVID recession.
What should your clients do to keep on track during COVID-19?
It’s easy to become paralyzed by fear and uncertainty as we attempt to re-start the world. It is challenging to shut off distractions, filter news reports, and think of moving forward with money decisions and retirement planning.


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Shares of the drug store operator were gaining 0.9% to $80.72.
The quarterly dividend is in line with CVS's previous dividend. The new quarterly dividend is payable on Nov. 3 to all shareholders of record as of the close of business on Oct. 23. The ex-dividend date is set for Oct. 21.
TheStreet Ratings team rates CVS HEALTH CORP as a Buy with a ratings score of A+. TheStreet Ratings Team has this to say about their recommendation:
"We rate CVS HEALTH CORP (CVS) a BUY. This is based on the convergence of positive investment measures, which should help this stock outperform the majority of stocks that we rate. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its revenue growth, solid stock price performance, impressive record of earnings per share growth, increase in net income and largely solid financial position with reasonable debt levels by most measures. We feel these strengths outweigh the fact that the company shows low profit margins."
Highlights from the analysis by TheStreet Ratings Team goes as follows:
- The revenue growth came in higher than the industry average of 3.2%. Since the same quarter one year prior, revenues rose by 10.7%. Growth in the company's revenue appears to have helped boost the earnings per share.
- Investors have apparently begun to recognize positive factors similar to those we have mentioned in this report, including earnings growth. This has helped drive up the company's shares by a sharp 34.04% over the past year, a rise that has exceeded that of the S&P 500 Index. Regarding the stock's future course, although almost any stock can fall in a broad market decline, CVS should continue to move higher despite the fact that it has already enjoyed a very nice gain in the past year.
- CVS HEALTH CORP has improved earnings per share by 16.5% in the most recent quarter compared to the same quarter a year ago. The company has demonstrated a pattern of positive earnings per share growth over the past two years. We feel that this trend should continue. During the past fiscal year, CVS HEALTH CORP increased its bottom line by earning $3.76 versus $3.03 in the prior year. This year, the market expects an improvement in earnings ($4.49 versus $3.76).
- The net income growth from the same quarter one year ago has exceeded that of the S&P 500 and the Food & Staples Retailing industry average. The net income increased by 11.2% when compared to the same quarter one year prior, going from $1,121.00 million to $1,246.00 million.
- The current debt-to-equity ratio, 0.35, is low and is below the industry average, implying that there has been successful management of debt levels. Despite the fact that CVS's debt-to-equity ratio is low, the quick ratio, which is currently 0.68, displays a potential problem in covering short-term cash needs.
- You can view the full analysis from the report here: CVS Ratings Report


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The latest research from the Grant Thornton International Business Report (IBR) finds businesses in the UAE in a highly optimistic temperament about growth prospects for the year ahead, leading global confidence levels for hiring and profitability moving into 2014.
Of the 45 economies surveyed, only businesses in the Philippines (96%) are more confident in the local economic outlook. Net 84% of UAE business leaders express optimism for the year ahead which meant the UAE ranked higher than the US, Singapore and India.
This confidence extends into local business expectations for revenues, profits and hiring over the next 12 months. The UAE led all countries surveyed in Q3 for planned hiring over the next 12 months (net 66%) – ahead of Georgia (60%) and Turkey (56%), with the global average at 25% – and for profitability expectations (68%), well above the global average (38%). The UAE (84%) trails only India (86%) in terms of revenue expectations over the next 12 months.
Hisham Farouk, Managing Partner of Grant Thornton UAE commented: "The strength of business growth prospects reflects robust economic data. The UAE is expected to expand by around 4.4% forecast in both 2013 and 2014 and construction across the Gulf is booming with oil prices still well above US$100 per barrel. Clearly the openness of the UAE economy means is it susceptible to fluctuations in global trade patterns, but recent uncertainty in the US and some emerging economies does not seem to have dampened business confidence.
"Importantly, non-oil exports continue to grow as the economy diversifies, becoming a world-class hub for trade, transport and tourism. The emirate has invested heavily in recent years to boost trade, building manufacturing industries and economic zones. Port infrastructure and other transport links within the region, and to Asia and Africa are also improving, aswell as further building trading opportunities for businesses in the UAE. These investments are vital to increasing the long-term growth potential of the economy."


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iPhone 4G launch has been almost confirmed by Apple’s chief Steve Jobs himself, it will be most possibly unveiled at Apple’s annual WWDC (Worldwide Developer Conference) which will take place next month from June 7th to 11th, at the Moscone West Centre in San Francisco.
This was revealed through the emails which were personally responded by Steve Jobs to questions sent to his personal email over the weekend, the responses have many convinced that the iPhone 4G is set for launch at WWDC. An emailer from popular Apple coverage site Mac Rumours said to Jobs “I hope you have some good WWDC announcements to blow [Google] out of the water.” Jobs replied with a simple “You won’t be disappointed.”
The email sent by Bryan Webster was referring about the onslaught and continual march of Android, which has recently launched Android OS 2.2 also known as Froyo. According to many observers, the latest update could well be the tipping point OS for Google, which is fast becoming the iPhone’s biggest rival and have over taken Apple’s iPhone in sales in US during the first Quarter.


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The CERN Business Incubation Centre graduate company were recognised at the event on Wednesday 11th October and will receieve a tailored package of support from Oxford Innovation. To celebrate 30 yeas of supporting entrepreneurs, Oxford Innovation wanted to celebrate the milsetone by running the nation competition to identify the next generation of forward thinking entrepreneurs.
Alexander Reip, CEO, Oxford nanoSystems, said: “It’s a privilege to be named winner at Oxford Innovation’s 30th Anniversary celebrations and it will definitely provide us with an edge when talking to investors. We are facing exciting challenges as we work towards commercialising our product and are fortunate to be located within Oxfordshire’s strong ecosystem, which has world-class and affordable facilities to support emerging technology companies. For the greater good of home grown talent and the UK economy, I hope that more counties across the UK follow suit.”
Read more at Oxford nanoSystem's website
Oxford nanoSystems develop innovative coatings to improve two-phase heat transfer surfaces. The technology uses a low cost, low temperature process which can be quickly and easily implemented in components post-manufacture. The coatings enable the production of cheaper, lighter, and more efficient products which consume less fuel, limit environmental impact and reduce manufacturing costs.
Oxford Innovation has roots in the first commercial spin-out from Oxford University - Oxford Instruments PLC. Founded in 1959 by Martin and Audrey Wood, their experience of developing a spin-out company revealed the challenges faced by entrepreneurs and inspired them to set up The Oxford Trust, a charitable trust which continues to support the region’s science and technology ecosystem and through which Oxford Innovation was born in 1987.
Since then, we have supported over 7,000 SMEs to become sustainable businesses, creating high value jobs, innovative products and services and as a result, enhanced local economies.


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Boeing Chief Executive Dave Calhoun told CNBC Wednesday the planemaker did not object to the arraignment and expressed sympathy for the families.
Amid a dormant IPO market, Stripe will make a decision on its plans to go public within the next year, according to people familiar with the...
Jim Cramer says that people just seem to want to own stocks this year. More soft-landing hopes after morning economic data. Also, chatter about possible changes...
This is the daily notebook of Mike Santoli, CNBC’s senior markets commentator, with ideas about trends, stocks and market statistics.
My takeaways about leadership and growth tactics from being in the trenches of high-growth tech startups.
Toyota is the world’s largest automaker, and it’s going through a leadership shift.
Earned media coverage is one of the most powerful tools for brands to encourage consumer trust and credibility.
Position yourself as a thought leader in your industry with PR: debunking the myths and discovering the true potential of this powerful marketing tool.
A TikToker in Arkansas is showing off the new technology that Walmart has implemented in 2,500 locations across the country.


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SAN ANTONIO — In South and Central Texas, there's one grocery chain that rules the land – H-E-B. And it seems other businesses are taking note.
According to a report from the San Antonio Business Journal, the Des Moines-based grocery chain Hy-Vee has been planning a multi-state expansion, but its CEO has made it clear that the company has no plans to go far south as Texas.
The CEO, Randy Edeker, made the announcement in a video to employees stating that while Hy-Vee is expanding into new states for the first time since 2009, it won't be moving to Texas anytime soon because of H-E-B's dominance.
"They’re [H-E-B] a phenomenal competitor," Edeker said. "There are lots of weak competitors out there that we just don’t need to go poke that bear, so we won’t."
Hy-Vee is said to be adding stores in Indiana, Tennessee, Alabama and Kentucky by 2023.
To read the full San Antonio Business Journal report, click here.
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Provided by the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office:
Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro is alerting Pennsylvania consumers to a new twist on an old scam involving their Social Security numbers.
The scam differs from traditional Social Security scams because callers are telling consumers that their Social Security number has been compromised or suspended, rather than their usual tactic of saying it was stolen or demanding certain action to receive benefits. Some consumers alleged that the scam artists are impersonating government agencies and threatening arrest, saying that they must make an immediate payment in order to avoid jail time.
“My Office is warning consumers that scam artists are out in full force, employing new tactics to achieve their same nefarious goals,” said Attorney General Josh Shapiro. “I urge Pennsylvanians to be vigilant of this scam and, if you believe that you have been victimized, please contact my Office immediately. We are here to protect you, and we are working hard to put an end to these scams.”
These deceptive calls tell consumers that someone is using their Social Security number and scare them into making quick decisions that can be devastatingly costly. In one circumstance, D. Covert, 61, of Franklin, PA, received a call from someone claiming to be from the Social Security Administration who told him that his Social Security number had been compromised. Covert was alarmed because he had recently filed to start receiving his Social Security benefits. He then received a second call from a woman claiming to be from the County Sheriff’s office who said that multiple credit cards were opened in his name to make payments linked to terrorist groups in foreign countries and aggressively threatened him with jail time. Covert purchased about $10,000 in gift cards and read their numbers to the scammers.
“These scam artists terrified me into thinking that my information had been compromised and that I was going to jail,” said D. Covert. “I trusted the scammers because they told me that they were with the Social Security Administration and the County Sherriff’s office, and I had just filed to start receiving my Social Security benefits a few days prior. As a result, I lost $10,000. I’m grateful that Attorney General Shapiro and his Bureau of Consumer Protection are doing everything they can to warn other consumers and make sure this doesn’t happen to anyone else.”
Consumers who feel that they have been victimized or received a call similar to this may file a complaint with the Office of Attorney General’s Bureau of Consumer Protection by visiting the website, www.attorneygeneral.gov, or by calling the office at 1-800-441-2555.


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- The device will support fast charging capability.
- It will also offer a high refresh rate.
- The company is yet to reveal the arrival.
An upcoming smartphone of iQOO is making noise for the past couple of weeks and the same is believed to be dubbed as iQOO Neo 5. Well, now the retail box of the upcoming smartphone of the company surfaced online and it also reveals available one of the most important pieces of information. So without making any further delay let’s dive into the article to check out all the available information about the upcoming smartphone.
Going through the newly leaked image, we can see the retail box of the upcoming smartphone and the same is in Black and Yellow accents and there is the ‘iQOO Neo 5‘ moniker as well.
We can also see the upcoming smartphone inside but its display is barely visible. But we can also see a single Selfie camera at the center position of the screen and the image also shows a 66W FlashCharger support for the smartphone.
Apart from this, the newly surfaced image doesn’t provide any other information about the upcoming smartphone. But it is expected that the upcoming iQOO Neo 5 is believed to feature a 4,400mAb battery. The device will likely feature an AMOLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate.
So let’s wait for more information about the upcoming smartphone in the coming days and it is expected that the company will make it official next month. We recommend you to stay tuned with us for more interesting information from the technological world and don’t forget to smash the bell icon on the left corner of the screen to get the notifications instantly.
Read interesting news, reviews as well as tips & tricks on TechnoBugg website, and stay updated with the latest happenings of the tech world on the go with Technobugg App. Also follow on Google News and join our Telegram channel for the latest updates.


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Seattle (PRWEB) July 13, 2015
Woot.com announced the launch of a five-day-long celebration of its 11th anniversary, beginning today and culminating on Friday, July 17. Customers can take advantage of free shipping on all items sold on Monday, July 13, enjoy a special birthday edition of the popular Woot-Off flash sale on Tuesday, and play an interactive murder-mystery game across the site all week long, with winners and awards announced during a livestream event on Friday, July 17.
“We’re excited about our birthday and can’t wait to pass that excitement along to our customers,” said John Alteio, General Manager of Woot. “We’ve lined up great deals and surprises all week and we hope our customers have fun unlocking all the different clues and limited-time sales.”
Free Shipping All Day Monday
Everything that Woot.com sells, from electronics and home goods to sporting goods and custom-printed shirts, will ship for free on Monday, July 13.
All-Star Woot-Off Tuesday
The customer favorite Woot-Off, which showcases one deal at a time until it sells out, will run all day Tuesday, July 14, featuring Woot’s best prices of the season. Save up to 75% on select laptops and electronics, 70% on home goods, plus thousands of other deals running all week long.
The Return of American Apparel
Starting Monday, July 13, Shirt.Woot is excited to once again offer designs on American Apparel brand shirts. Customers can now choose between a “house brand” and a “premium” American Apparel option. “We’re thrilled to be giving customers this choice,” said Joel Lewis, Director of Shirt.Woot. “Our house brand offers value, whereas AA offers an American-made alternative with a more slim fit.”
“Wootdunnit!” – A week-long murder mystery
It’s a good, old-fashioned whodunit, with a Woot twist. Someone’s been murdered, and it’s up to customers to help solve the crime. Woot.com will transform into “The Mansion,” where customers can explore rooms and watch videos in search of clues, secret limited-quantity sales, and $5 collections of random products and junk from the Woot warehouse, known as Bags of Crap. The week-long interactive game will culminate with a livestream on Friday, July 17, where the killer will be revealed and customers will be rewarded with a yet-to-be-announced surprise.
Woot.com is the original daily deal site, founded in July 2004. Woot offers multiple daily deals and other short-term sales across 11 different categories, plus special site-wide events like Woot-Offs and other shenanigans. Woot is a subsidiary of Amazon.com. Direct press/media inquiries to marketing(at)woot(dot)com.


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SEGA turns 60 this year, and the company has launched a new website to mark the occasion! Called “GO SEGA,” the website contains a summary of SEGA’s 60 year history, as well as a message from SEGA Group chairman Haruki Satomi. In the message (read here), Satomi talks about the company’s aspirations for the future, the meaning of “GO SEGA,” and promises special content throughout the anniversary.
What exactly that content is, we don’t know as of yet. The website’s “events” section is currently greyed out. In addition to the history lesson and Satomi’s message, the website will also be accepting 100 character messages from SEGA fans about their experiences with the company and its games. These messages will be accepted between April 21 and June 3, and will eventually be displayed on the website. 60 lucky people will even have a chance to win a special 60th anniversary handbag, pictured below:
What are you hoping for from SEGA during it’s 60th anniversary? Let us know in the comments!


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Chrysler sues Colorado over dealer law
- Ed Sealover
Chrysler Group LLC has sued the state of Colorado, claiming a new law that gives terminated dealers the right of first refusal if automakers want to reopen franchises that were closed in bankruptcy is unconstitutional.
The legal complaint, filed late Friday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the southern district of New York, came on the same day that a bipartisan group of state senators introduced a bill to fine anyone not complying with the "Colorado Dealers Law" as much as $25,000 a day.
Chrysler's complaint lists state Attorney General John Suthers, Department of Revenue Executive Director Roxy Huber and Bruce Zulauf, executive secretary of the Colorado Motor Vehicle Dealer Board, as defendants.
General Motors terminated contracts with 25 Colorado dealers and Chrysler with 14 dealers during bankruptcy and bailout proceedings last year. Though the automakers said they needed to trim poorly performing dealerships to improve their businesses, a number of the ousted dealers said they believed they were cut for political rather than performance-based reasons.
On March 22, Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter signed into law House Bill 1049, which gives the terminated dealers right of first refusal if Chrysler or GM decides to re-award a franchise within five miles of them within five years of their closing. The bill also goes further than bills passed in other states and, if the franchise already has been re-awarded, allows those dealers to go back to Chrysler or GM and demand their franchise back.
Three ousted Chrysler dealers did exactly that in recent weeks, but said they were told that Chrysler had no intention of following the law.
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Jack Dorsey’s passion for Twitter may be more than idealism. During the company’s Q2 earnings call, the CEO of the $60 billion company has come out to say that cryptocurrencies, bitcoin in particular, are important for the company’s future.
Twitter is a micro-blogging website that let’s users follow each other. It also has a popular trending list that shows the most popular items on the website at a particular time.
While the service is popular as a social media platform, the company has been aggressively seeking new business lines.
The social media giant is currently on-ramping its live-chat feature Spaces, much quicker than Clubhouse, the pioneer in the sector.
Twitter also recently launched a subscription version of its app, Twitter Blue. This comes with additional features, such as a bookmarks folder and an undo button.
In May 2021, Twitter introduced Tip Jar. This is a feature that includes payment links to services such as Paypal, Cashapp, and Venmo, through which a Twitter user can receive tips from others.
In addition, the company has also recently introduced Super Follows, a feature that lets a category of followers pay a user for following them.
Users will be able to set the value of the content they offer from one these prices:
Twitter Spaces can also be monetized and hosts can charge for access.
It is these features in particular (Tip Jar and Super Follows) that Twitter would be looking to integrate with bitcoin.
Dorsey also revealed that the company is looking to integrate subscriptions and commerce.
Jack, as he his commonly referred, has now established himself as a firm believer in bitcoin. The other company he founded and leads, Square, is one of the leading institutional holders of bitcoin, with over 8, 000 coins held so far.
In the earnings call, Jack said:
“If the Internet has a native currency, a global currency, we are able to move so much faster with products such as Super Follows, Commerce, Subscription, Tip Jar, and we can reach every single person on the planet because of that instead of going down on market-by-market approach.”
I think it’s hugely important to Twitter and Twitter shareholders that we continue to look at the space and invest aggressively in it.”
– CEO, Twitter
However, during the earnings call, the CEO reminded investors that Twitter is not the only firm headed towards integrating cryptocurrencies. He noted that Facebook is planning to launch its own cryptocurrency, Diem, with a pilot expected by year’s end.
Unlike Facebook however, Twitter believes that Bitcoin represents one currency for the internet, and prefers that over a solo crypto project.


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Reliance JioPhone Diwali 2019 offer: The smart feature phone gets a big price cut
Reliance JioPhone is available with a new discounted price and data benefits as well. Here’s all you need to know about the new JioPhone Diwali offer.
Reliance Jio just announced its 'JioPhone Diwali 2019 offer' under which it is offering the JioPhone for ₹699. The 1st generation JioPhone will be available with this discounted price along with additional data offers.
JioPhone which originally sells at ₹1,500 will now be available at ₹699. The telco is also offering special data benefits along with the JioPhone discount. Consumers who purchase the JioPhone through this Diwali offer can avail data benefits of ₹700 on the first seven recharges. Jio users will get ₹99 worth of data for each recharge.
Unlike Jio's monsoon offer, this one doesn't come with any condition like exchanging an old phone. JioPhone was offered at ₹501 on exchange of an old device. Users also received a 6GB data voucher worth ₹101 along with this monsoon offer.
JioPhone specs, features
Reliance Jio launched its first smart feature phone back in 2017. The phone comes with a 2.4-inch TFT display, 1GHz dual core processor, 512MB of RAM and 4GB ROM. It has a 2-megapixel rear camera and a 0.3-megapixel VGA front camera. JioPhone also offers Bluetooth 4.1, microUSB port, NFC and FM radio. It houses a 2,000mAh battery.
JioPhone's smart features include WhatsApp, Facebook and YouTube support. It also has Google Assistant support and 4G LTE. On the software front, JioPhone runs KaiOS. Reliance Jio later launched the JioPhone 2 in 2018 with a newer design and more features. The telco is now slated to launch a MediaTek-powered JioPhone soon.
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ORIGINALLY WRITTEN JULIE ANDERSON
Danita Unrau and her son, Darci, hope to make a difference in the lives of children during a service trip to Romania in August.
The Unraus are going to Romania with a group of 30 people organized by Robin Horner from Tennessee.
Danita decided to go when she found out her sister was going. When she told her family about it, her son said he wanted to go, too.
“My aunt kept going to all of these places and I wanted to go,” Darci said. “I hope I can go to the Amazon next time she goes.”
Danita said she thought it would be fun for Darci because they would be working with children.
The group will leave Aug. 8 or 9 and will spend a week in Romania.
Danita said the purpose of the trip is to show the Romanian people someone cares about them.
“It is more of a good will, here we are to help you,” she said. “We’re not here to do big, super, wonderful things.”
Each day, the group will go to a different place to work on projects or help children.
“They tell me these kids have nothing,” Danita said.
During their trip they will visit local sites. For at least five or six days, the group will spend part of the day at the Inasmuch Children’s Home, where 20 girls now live.
While the group is there, they will help sort through a shipment of clothes sent over in May.
When they are not at the children’s home, the group will visit a children’s hospital, church for the blind and a day camp.
Some of the clothes and toys will be taken to the hospital.
The group also will hold a one-day vacation Bible school at Barbalest, a gypsy village.
“I hope we can just make these little kids feel happy for one minute or one hour or four days,” Danita said.
She said they want to have a good time with the children. She said the children there have the same problems as children do here.
“Alcohol and drugs and all that stuff is hard for them, too,” she said. “Could you imagine not having your parents or grandparents?”
Residents in the children’s home often had been living in the canals or sewers to get out of the weather.
The home is not funded by the government.
In conjunction with the trip, the Unraus are collecting clothes to send to Romania. They also need Tylenol, IB profin, shampoo, toiletries, makeup and toys.
Money also is needed for diapers and other items that can be purchased there.
While the clothes and larger items will be shipped over, the Unraus will take some of the toys and smaller items, which are being collected up to the time they leave.
The items are being shipped by Milk and Honey Ministries.
The Unraus also could use money to help with the airfare.
“If people want to give us money, that’s fine,” Danita said. “We haven’t really gone out on a big ‘We need money’ campaign.”
While they are there, Danita hopes to get to know the children and what they like, so she can fill 15 book bags with items and send them over for Christmas.


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Advertising spend is down just 0.4 per cent compared with last year, allowing for inflation, says the Advertising Association.
This equates to an overall rise of 181m and represents an increase of 1.7 per cent at current prices.
AA director general Andrew Brown says: “There’s no evidence of any slowdown other than in recruitment advertising.”
For the year 2000, the AA estimates an increase of 1.3 per cent in real terms. This equates to an overall rise of 381m at current prices, representing an increase of 3.6 per cent.
Brown says that, by then, recruitment advertising is expected to have recovered and market conditions to have improved.
In 1998 ad spend in the UK reached its highest level – 14.3bn.
This was an increase of 7.7 per cent on the previous year at current prices, or 4.1 per cent in real terms, according to the latest AA figures .
For seven consecutive years, advertising expenditure has risen, even after discounting the rate of inflation.
Advertising has also recorded its highest share of gross domestic product at 1.71 per cent, up on the previous year from 1.66 per cent, and exceeding the pre-recession peak in 1989 of 1.69 per cent.
Brown says: “This indicates how bad the recession was and how much more wealthy and more competitive the economy has become.”
Press continued to attract the highest proportion of overall advertising revenue at 52.3 per cent, down from 52.4 per cent in 1997.
TV, the second largest medium, has increased its share from 27.9 per cent in 1997 to 28.2 per cent.
The advertising spend figures will shortly be published in the Advertising Association’s Statistics Yearbook, published by NTC Publications.
v William Hague, the leader of the Conservative Party gave his support to self-regulation at the Advertising Association’s annual general meeting on Monday.
He backed a single European market that would not tolerate restrictions on advertising from individual countries, such as Greece’s ban on toy advertising.


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With the recent news that Google tampers with its search results to bump its own listings to the top, TechEye spoke with a search engine optimisation (SEO) expert and discovered that this tactic is widespread within the industry.
We spoke to Aaron Wall from SEObook.com, who, when faced with the question “does Google hard code its own search results for self-promotion?” answered: “Absolutely.”
“I think Ben’s piece highlights how they do that in select verticals well,” he said, referencing researcher Ben Edelman who exposed the Google practice in a recent report. “They perhaps try to do that mostly to search verticals rather than the core search algorithm. However, even the core of search infrastructural changes might also rely on business opportunities.”
“For example, Google believes that when they launched universal search (to promote news, videos, and other select verticals) they only decided to launch that after they acquired YouTube.
“Also, around the time Google was considering buying Yelp they started to include star ratings from Yelp on some AdWords ads. After that purchase fell through those star ratings started pushing Google review ratings & Google re-aligned local search results to promote Google place pages (and the businesses that have Google place pages).”
So what does this mean for SEO? “In markets where Google is using more of the search results for themselves it of course makes it harder for 3rd parties to gain access to that traffic without buying ads,” said Wall. More ads means more revenue, which means Google benefits two-fold from the sneaky self-promotion tactics.
This approach is not limited to Google, however. Wall pointed out that self-promotion is endemic among most of the leading search companies. “Some of the other search engines are even more aggressive than Google is at promoting select verticals,” he said. “Most of the other leading search companies were built out of web portals & promotion of the portal has been a core search strategy for many years.”
Wall said “what makes Google remarkable in doing what others [are] doing is the huge share of the search market Google owns.” In other words, Google’s dominance in the market means its every move is open to scrutiny, and that means that questionable tactics employed by it are more likely to hit the headlines than similar practices by smaller firms that simply slip under the radar.
He cited Ask.com as a good example of this tactic at work. “They fill some of their own search results with listings from some of their own properties,” said Wall. “They include things like question and answer mashups, lead generation forms, premium placements for select IAC companies, and so on.”
Wall had some stark words to share about the future of search engines: “The truth is that as search engines become media companies and ad networks they will become increasingly conflicted with promoting internal customers.”


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UberEATS & Deliveroo under the spotlight
The ATO has confirmed that people who make money out of delivering for popular online meal ordering and delivery platforms such as UberEATS and Deliveroo will not have to register for and pay GST, unlike their counterparts at Uber, if they fall under the GST threshold.
And while UberEATS charges a service fee for each delivery to the cafe or restaurant it collects food from, it doesn't have to pay tax on that service fee.
How delivery services avoid GST
The ATO and Uber responded to a series of questions posed by Fairfax Media about UberEATS and similar delivery type services like Deliveroo.
Both confirmed that UberEATS contractors and other people contracted to a delivery service "don't need to be registered for, or pay, GST unless your turnover from all of your enterprises is, or is projected to be, $75,000 or more per annum".
But the same situation does not apply to Uber drivers. If someone drives for both ride-sharing and delivery services, he or she will have to be registered for and pay GST.
And thanks to GST rules regarding imported services and digital products, UberEATS charges the cafe a service fee for each delivery, but does not pay tax on it.


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After a whole heap of rumours, Sony itself has begun teasing its forthcoming Xperia Z1. The company has taken to Twitter, posting a cropped image of the device, with the missive, “It’s the smartphone everyone’s been talking about…Not long now #bestofSony.”
While the Xperia Z1 has undoubtedly been the subject of intense gossip, Sony’s pushing it somewhat to say it’s the phone everyone’s been talking about. That title falls to Apple’s forthcoming iPhones, surely.
That said, the Z1 certainly promises to mix things up. A step up from January’s Xperia Z, it’s said to rock a Full HD 5-inch display, 2GB of RAM and a Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor.
The big news, though, will doubtless be the handset’s 20.7-megapixel camera. Sony will be desperate to wrest back the initiative from Nokia’s new Lumia 1020 and reassert itself as the premium camera phone brand.
The Z1 is expected to be revealed at Berlin’s IFA show. Sony will be going up against Samsung’s new Galaxy Note 3 and HTC’s One Max in the German capital.